Ug99, a virulent fungal disease, could create a major food security crisis by attacking the world's second largest crop, wheat. After the disease was discovered in Uganda in 1999, its spores took to the wind, hit fields in Kenya and Ethiopia, jumped the Red Sea to Yemen and turned up this year in Iran.
U.S. Scientists Continue Fight Against Global Wheat Killer
Published January 11, 2012
Ug99, a fungus that infects wheat and other grains, poses a major threat to global food crops. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the ongoing effort to develop hybrid wheat varieties resistant to this disease and the need for new distribution methods to ensure world farmers will have access to hybrid seeds.
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Ug99, a fungal disease known as wheat rust, could destroy 80 percent of all known wheat varieties. Scientists in Kenya's Rift Valley are joining a global fight against it.
Experts in Kenya report steady advances in developing varieties of wheat resistant to the stem-rust disease that threatens an essential crop. But progress is slow—and the stakes are high.
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Grantee
Fred de Sam Lazaro is director of the Project for Under-Told Stories at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, a program that combines international journalism and teaching. He has served with The...
